Steroids in Food and Weight Gain

[johnnymk]

I have been noticing lately that steroids are added to poultry and cows so that they grow faster.

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that eating these foods could possibly cause the same thing in humans.
After all, the antibiotics that are given to these animals are getting in our bodies, making us less resistant to many diseases and negating the effect of antibiotics when we need them.

I am seeing big guts in younger and younger people today, and I can't totally blame it on overeating or lack of exercise.

[whitak24]

i don't think steroids would cause weight gain you're seeing, particularly the big guts.

i've known people who were on steroids because of various medical conditions and they often cause something of a "puffy" appearance (i think they make you retain more water or something). however, the "weight gain" that is typically associated with steroids is a result of working out in conjunction with using the drug, which causes users to add muscle mass. steroids themselves do not cause the weight gain or the increase in muscle mass, they just enable people to work out harder and build muscle more rapidly.

i think the guts probably come from increasingly fatty foods, larger portions, and less physical activity.

[molecularfire]

Which steroids are they and how are they given to the chicken and cows? I know that people inject human growth hormones into animals, but I'm not worried about that because they're proteins and very very little if any will survive our stomach, negligible compared to what our body makes anyways at worst case scenario. Anyways, steroids cause osteoporosis, so if the steroids were the cause, it would sound reasonable that we would have a higher rate of osteoporosis. I haven't looked up the data but I'd be surprised if osteoporosis rates increased as much as obesity rates.

btw... depending on what is used, steroids can easily cause weight gain. Look up cushinoid or cushing's syndrome.